Read a 334-word academic passage at your normal pace and see your words per minute. There is no target here. ETS publishes no required reading speed, so this tool reports your own and works out what it means against the listed ~18–21 min router + 9 min module for the section.
Reading speed test
334 words · Press start, then read.
Practice passage
The domestication of the horse is among the most consequential events in human prehistory, and among the hardest to date. Unlike pottery or metalwork, the practice leaves few objects behind. A domesticated horse and a hunted one produce much the same bones, and the equipment used to control early horses was made of rope and leather, materials that rarely survive in the archaeological record. For most of the twentieth century, then, the question was argued from indirect evidence, and the estimates ranged across two thousand years.
Three lines of evidence have narrowed the range. The first is dental. A horse controlled by a bit develops a characteristic pattern of wear on the second premolar, where the metal or bone repeatedly strikes the tooth. Where this wear appears on excavated teeth, some form of riding or driving is a reasonable inference, though the wear can also be produced by other causes and a single worn tooth proves little on its own.
The second line is chemical. Residue analysis of pottery from settlement sites has identified the fatty acids characteristic of mare's milk. Milking implies a herd managed closely enough to be milked, which is a considerably stronger claim than proximity, and it implies a relationship maintained across generations rather than a single captured animal.
The third and most decisive line is genetic. Sequencing of ancient horse remains has shown that the modern domestic horse descends from a population that expanded rapidly from a limited region, replacing other lineages across the continent within a few centuries. The speed of that replacement is itself the evidence: a wild population does not spread that way, but a useful animal carried by people does.
Taken together these lines converge on a narrower window than any one of them supports alone, which is the ordinary condition of prehistoric dating. No single find settles the question. What changes the estimate is the accumulation of independent methods that happen to agree, and the corresponding difficulty of explaining that agreement any other way.
ETS publishes no required or recommended reading speed for the TOEFL, so this tool sets no target and passes no judgement on your result. It reports the speed you read at and works out what that means for the time available.
Why there is no target speed on this page
ETS publishes no required or recommended reading speed for the TOEFL, so this tool sets no target and passes no judgement on your result. It reports the speed you read at and works out what that means for the time available.
You will find plenty of confident numbers elsewhere — 250 words per minute, 300, at least 200. None of them cites ETS, because there is nothing to cite. What is actually true is narrower and more useful: the Reading section’s listed ~18–21 min router + 9 min module covers reading and answering, so every minute spent reading is a minute not spent on questions. Your own pace tells you how that budget divides. A stranger’s target does not.
This passage was written by Reach120 for this tool. It is not a real TOEFL reading passage and no ETS material is reproduced here.
What to do if reading time is squeezing your questions
Read once, properly. Re-reading a passage costs more than reading it slowly the first time. Most people who run out of time are re-reading, not reading slowly.
Vocabulary is usually the real constraint. A pace that collapses on academic text but holds on ordinary text is a vocabulary problem wearing a speed costume, and drilling speed will not fix it.
Measure again in a fortnight, not tomorrow. Reading pace moves slowly, and day-to-day variation on a single passage is larger than a week of progress.
Common questions
What reading speed do I need for the TOEFL?
ETS publishes no required or recommended reading speed for the TOEFL, so this tool sets no target and passes no judgement on your result. It reports the speed you read at and works out what that means for the time available.
How long is the TOEFL Reading section?
The listed time is ~18–21 min router + 9 min module — an adaptive router stage followed by a module. That time covers reading and answering together, which is why your reading pace matters: it decides how much of the budget is left for the questions.
Is this a real TOEFL passage?
This passage was written by Reach120 for this tool. It is not a real TOEFL reading passage and no ETS material is reproduced here.
How is my speed calculated?
Words divided by elapsed time. The passage is 334 words, and the timer runs from when you press start to when you press finish. The measurement happens in your browser and nothing is stored.
My speed looks low. Should I do speed-reading drills?
Probably not first. If your pace holds up on ordinary English and collapses on academic text, the constraint is vocabulary and syntax rather than speed, and speed drills will not move it. Re-reading is the other common cause — it is invisible while you do it and expensive in a timed section.
The next step
Free to start. The Writing and Speaking legs spend your metered free AI credits, then need a plan.
TOEFL reading speed test — Reach120. https://www.reach120.com/tools/toefl-reading-speed-test
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Sourced from the ETS 2026 test specifications, read (link confirmed ). Reach120 is an independent practice tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by ETS; the document is named here only to say what this page practices.
Reach120 is an independent practice tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by ETS, and it does not provide official TOEFL® test scores.
TOEFL® is a registered trademark of ETS. This product is not endorsed or approved by ETS.
